Early Christmas Present

I went to a Christmas Bazaar a few weeks ago and had ordered our last name from Alphabet Photography. If you haven't seen these, they are amazing! And so fun!  I had the kids help me pick out which pictures to use, and then had to order it because I was picky.  They usually do longer words horizontally, but I wanted ours vertically. They didn't have a frame there vertically that was big enough for our last name, so I've been waiting for it to come in.   I think it turned out really well.  It came in the mail today and I had to put it up right away! I love it!  Happy Christmas to ME!

My House

I've been putting up Christmas decorations all week and realized that I still haven't posted any pictures of our new house.  So I took a few pictures of downstairs and the boys' room today.  

Living Room (Yes, I was watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade)



Family Room (In the floor plans, this is a formal dining room, but since it is attached to the living room, we decided to use that space and keep it all open. We love it! It feels so much bigger!)

The other wall and the divider between the living and family rooms.

Dining Room

Boys' Room upstairs. It is the smallest bedroom and therefore usually the cleanest. :) I'll get to the other bedrooms later.



Entryway:  Kitchen and dining straight ahead, living/family room to the left, bathroom and laundry room to the right.



Christmas Tree

We put up our tree today! 

Piano

I started teaching Bucko piano last weekend and Minnie wanted to learn to. So this morning, I taught her her first lesson. She learned quickly. Her form isn't great right now, but she learned whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes. So I video taped her playing her first real song! Reading the notes and counting the beats all by herself.  The song is called "The Train." Enjoy!

Myrtle Beach, SC

In October, I got to spend one whole week with my Prince Charming.  With no kids! This has never happened before, and I know it won't happen again for a long time to come.  My sister watched all four of our kids and I flew out to meet up with him.  One of the best days was when we drove down to Myrtle Beach. We actually went to North Myrtle Beach because we thought it would be less crowded. It was nice.  80 degrees in October!! I wasn't complaining!!    And a whole day of just relaxing and soaking up the sun.  It was a great time. The whole week was nice just to be together. The only bad part was having to say goodbye. And it was harder this time.

PC bought a hat to keep the sun off of him and we also bought this mat to sit on.  It was great.

Enjoying the cool water.

He's just so good looking, I could take pictures all day.

The two of us at the beach.

Here we are waiting for our food to arrive. We found a cute restaurant right on the pier.  It was very friendly and great food.

Tooth Fairy

Bucko has had a permanent tooth growing in, but his baby tooth in front of it hadn't fallen out yet. In fact, they weren't even very wiggly. Luckily, I asked the dentist about it at church and he told me that I should bring him in.  We were able to go in this afternoon and after looking at the x-rays and finding that the one beside it was looking about the same, he pulled both of his two bottom front teeth!  He is SO excited!  They gave him a cute little treasure chest to put his teeth in, and yes, the tooth fairy has already come tonight in case you were wondering. 
This dentist was amazing though.  The best pediatric dentist I have seen.  Bucko was so relaxed and calm. He had him giggling and enjoying the whole process.  He was very brave, but did cry at one point when he just wiggled it before giving him any medication.  Poor little guy. I felt awful for him.  I knew it was hurting, though, because I had tried to wiggle it for him and he would cry out in pain then too. I guess the new tooth just wouldn't let the other one have any wiggle room, so it would hurt when we would try to wiggle it.  But with some gas and localized numbing, Bucko didn't feel a thing and was shocked when he was told that he had not only lost one tooth, but two!!  He has been showing everyone his loss and his treasure chest with his teeth in it.  So sweet!

Haircuts

Minnie and I both got haircuts.  She has been wanting a short bob for a while now, so I finally let her.  Last year, Bucko cut her hair and she ended up having to have a bob to fix it.  She looked so cute then, so I knew she would look great with it.  My only reservation was that she used to be sad when we couldn't braid it or put it in pigtails.  She doesn't seem to care about that anymore, though.  We bought her some cute clips, so she is happy. And it really does look good on her.  Mine isn't anything too dramatic, but I did get about 3 inches taken off.  And it always feels so nice because I have them thin it for me as well. My hair is just so thick!  So this isn't the best picture, but it's all I've got at the moment!

Family Night Crafts

Auntie K taught a lesson about gratitude, so we spent about an hour making homemade thank you cards.  Kids love glitter.  We had fun quoting Alvin from Alvin and Chipmunks:  "It looks great. Just needs a tad more glitter." Then, he of course dumps the entire bottle on it.  We didn't dump the bottle, but we had fun. I was in charge of the glitter. The kids thought it was so cool seeing what they drew in glue become all glittery.  It has been fun to see them give each other cards that say things like, "Thank you for laughing with me" or "Thank you for playing with me."  So cute!

Hunstanton Beach/Castle Rising Castle

The kids had a day off today for teacher training.  We decided to go straight north to the closest beach. May not have been the best beach choice. Ok, it was the worst choice in beaches, but it was still fun.  It's on The Wash, so no waves. It's sand, then mud, then water waaaayy out there.  So we looked for seashells and rocks, played in the water, and took pictures.  Here are some of my favorites.

Then we went to Castle Rising Castle.  We had fun exploring there as well.  It is one of the most famous 12th century castles. The stone keep was built in 1140.

"There's something stuck up in the chimney and I don't know what it is..."  Yes, my kids are looking to see if Santa Claus is coming down the chimney!

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkins on Halloween night.  I did just a classic jack-o-lantern.  Auntie K had apparently never carved a pumpkin before, so this was a first for her.  I think she enjoyed it.  She loves pumpkin seeds, so she was willing to do the work to get them! 

This is seriously one of my favorite pictures.  Bucko took the picture, and it would make more sense if you could see what she is doing. Hilarious, nonetheless.  She is, of course, scooping out the pumpkin's guts.  Slimey, hence the face. :)

We tried some new seasonings this year, rather than sticking with just salt (though we did a batch like that as well).  My favorites were Season All and garlic salt.  Also learned that cinnamon alone does not work too well.  Cinnamon sugar probably would have been better.

Halloween

We did Trunk-or-Treat at the church with a chili dinner beforehand. It was fun.  Auntie K and I dressed up as twins. :)  Tink was Sleeping Beauty, Bucko was a Captain in the Air Force, Minnie was Belle, and Goofy was Superman.  We stopped in Weeting at the church for some spooky pictures in the graveyard.  Then the kids went trick-or-treating to our neighbors.  SO much candy!

Fall Colors

The leaves have been changing and we had to get some pictures before they were all gone. So we stopped at a place called Two Mile Bottom on our way home from church today.  We had so much fun posing for the camera.  Here are a few to enjoy!